Video Game / TERA

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"The Valkyon Federation was created to defeat the argons, because if we canít win the war, our world is doomed. What we need to remember, though, is that if we win the war but canít win the peace that follows, the federation itself is doomed."

Fraya, Allemantheia Commander

The Exiled Realm of Arborea, or TERA, is a Korean action MMORPG by Bluehole Studios. Built on the scrapped source code for what would have been Lineage III, TERA uses a real-time battle system instead of the standard MMO fare of a plethora of action keys. Players can Hack and Slash, Cast Magics, Dodge, and Block, all in real-time and with no breaks.

A millennia ago, the two gods Arun and Shara met in the void and fell asleep. As they slept, they dreamed, and as they dreamed, the world of Tera was formed. First came twelve gods, who all battled fiercely for control of Tera. Born into the conflict were the mortal races, dragged into the divine wars and ever at the heels of the gods. The divine wars lasted for centuries, and took its toll on mortal and god alike.

The divine wars ended with most of the gods dead, imprisoned, or diminished. The remaining mortal races took over control of Tera, and with the recently formed Valkyon Federation, old wounds are finally starting to heal. But in this peace, trouble has arisen: to the north, the metallic race of argons have surfaced and threatens to terraform the world to their liking, and the mysterious Island of Dawn has suddenly risen at the center of the world.

The Player Character enters this world to fight these mysterious menaces. Players can choose from one of seven races, eleven classes, and explore the world either alone or in groups. The game was released on January 25, 2011 in Korea, August 18, 2011 in Japan, and May 1 and May 3, 2012 for North America and Europe respectively. Other markets planned for release are China and Thailand.

The US and European versions of the game have been free-to-play since early February 2013, now with the new title TERA: Rising.

Beastess: The female Amani. The race's males are much more monstrous-looking compared to the females, but the female Amani still stand out compared to the females of the other playable races in the game. And while it's possible to give a female Aman a more... comely face, she would still retain her race's height, three-clawed hands, elephant feet, statue-like physique, and overall intimidating presence.

Bowdlerise: The US and EU versions of the game censor the Elin models. Compare the differences here. Considering that the other races (well, except Castanic females that is) kept their stripperiffic outfits, this might be due to lolicon fears. Of course, uncensor patches cropped up the moment the game came out.

Incidentally, the censored armors are also very cosmetically glitchy. None of them react properly to dyes (the new elements aren't included in the diffuse layer), some have clipping issues, and most of them have some manner of issue with the tail holes in the Elin armor — depending, they forgot to add one to the new design, they forgot to leave a gap in the midriff cover so the tail isn't magically sprouting out of cloth, or the shorts ride too high in comparison to the tail hole in the outer armor, so the tail is improbably close to or even sprouting partially or entirely out of the shorts.

For added fun, only Player Character Elin armors were edited. Not only are there Elin NPCs that have outfits that would be censored if they were on Elin PCs, but there are actual children of other races who have outfits that would be censored if they were on Elin PCs.

Perhaps the most damning about this whole thing is the fact that the Elin costumes, which you pay real money for (or buy them off people who bought them for real money), are left completely and totally uncensored. The hypocrisy of this gets turned Up to 11 when you look at the Elin Devilicious Costume, which is far, far, far more "offensive" than any of the censored armors ever were.

Break the Cutie: The Reaper class is an Elin who saw her home being burned to the ground and basically losing everything that makes an Elin (innocent, happy, merciful) all gone with the Reaper.

Chainmail Bikini: A lot of the female (and some male) armors are very revealing.

In fact, there have been comparisons of high-level armor sets vs. more revealing clothing, and the high-level armors were more revealing than the basic underwear.

This gets especially ridiculous on human women, as even in the "heavy armor" weight class, every single armor set in the game shows off significant skin and usually cleavage. Even worse, nearly all the female models are literally rigged, animation-wise, to walk in heels. At all times. Even in heavy armor.

Charged Attack: Several classes have these, most notably Berserkers and Archers. Charging determines the power or the number of hits.

One of the game's loading messages explicitly tells you that, should you die in an instance dungeon, you should NOT choose the default resurrection, as it will resurrect you outside the dungeon and to the nearest town... which is usually a good ten minutes away, leaving your party members having to wait for your sorry ass. For this reason, it's good to have a healer or some Scrolls of Resurrection around.

Cute Bruiser: Choosing Popori or Elin and any melee class results in this.

Jack-of-All-Stats: Warriors. They're not as good as DPS compared to Slayers and Berserkers with their offensive stance, nor can they tank as easily as Lancers with their defensive stance, but they're still capable fighters in a variety of situations.

Lightning Bruiser: Brawler characters, especially at their debut and considering they're classified as Tanks. They have very high DPS, are durable thanks to their ability to block and counter enemy attacks, and have skills that let them move quickly across the battlefield.

One-Gender Race: Elins are all-female, while Popori and Baraka are supposedly genderless, but have male aesthetics and voice banks. Popori and Elin were originally the incredibly bizarrely dimorphic males and females of the same species.

Our Elves Are Better: Played with. They are long lived and physically and magically competent but they are also warlike while being nowhere near invincible. After being smashed by an alliance of other races they seemed to have reformed and are now the main driving force of The Federation, though Thulsa still calls them out on their arrogance.

Our Giants Are Bigger: Or arguably smaller in this case. The Baraka are claimed by lore to be one of the giant races that abandoned their peoples' battle lust (and escaped divine judgment for that) but they are scarcely a few heads taller than Humans. They also have body proportions that make them resemble overgrown Dwarves. The only slightly smaller Amani are not called giants for some reason.

Panty Shot: The skirts of High Elf females flip up regularly while animating. The Castanic Females can't even be bothered to cover their underwear most of the time.

Physical God: Most of the gods and goddesses in the game became corporeal and killable after Lok's device stripped away their powers but as one outing with Kaia shows they are still unmatched by any of the mortal races.

Pun: Some of the names of quests. Examples are "Ore, Really?," "A Venom-enal Effort," and "Dying of Boar-Dom." "Lair And Back Again" doubles as a Shout-Out.

Revenue-Enhancing Devices: The Tera store is a fairly inoffensive (if you don't count Fanservice) form of this, mostly selling cosmetic outfits, mounts, weapon skins, and dyes. You can also buy boosts for XP and Reputation, as well as strongbox keys, supply packs (low-level equipment and some potions, typically), and a few crafting materials-nothing gamebreaking, but convenient for those with money to spare.

Rule of Sexy: The only explanation for the existance of many, many, many outfits in this game.

Scenery Porn: Most of the landscapes in the game are brightly colored, absurdly detailed and screenshot-worthy, and you'll have no choice but to take them in when you get on a flying mount (which have fixed routes as the game's fast travel system).

Sexy Backless Outfit: Nearly all High Elf outfits are these, but particularly the robes, which are essentially cocktail dresses and evening gowns.

Sequence Breaking: Several story quests are unlocked at a specific level. Therefore, by overleveling, one can theoretically reach a point where Samael will become increasingly impatient with your character for letting certain key characters labeled traitors "escape"... while Elleon, one of Samael's targets, will be waiting right outside the next room himself, informing you of your next deployment, the cause of which is Samael's apparent death!

Spin Attack: Many classes have gratuitous spinning in their attack animations, while most 360 degree AoE attacks have at least one full spin. The Berserker's is particularly noticeable as the class can choose the number of spins by charging the attack.

Status Buff: Most classes have their own self-buffs, though Mystics are valued for their crit-enhancing aura buffs, which last as long as the Mystic is alive, in the area, and not completely spent on mana. Priests are also capable of casting buffs, but not to a passive extent like Mystics.

Stone Wall: The Lancer class. Warriors using the defensive stance can attempt this as well.

To a lesser degree, the intended purpose of the Mystic's Thrall of Protection. It has a lot of health, but isn't too good with aggro'ing and tanking compared to Lancers.

Tactical Suicide Boss: All BAM types and the bosses based on them have long recovery times after certain attacks during which they're vulnerable. These are usually the attacks that are least survivable without good use of a block or dodge move but to experienced players they're simply a signal to prepare to blow all their damage cooldowns.

Taken for Granite: A rare beneficial version: the Sorcerer class learns a stoneskin spell that makes them immune to all attacks. They can't do anything while petrified, but they can cancel the spell early.

These patch notes state that they're changing the LFG channel limit to one message per minute. Their reasoning for doing this is because "It's not Barrens chat." EME seems to like poking fun at Blizzard.

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